HK pair plead guilty over market abuse

HONG KONG - Two Chinese fraudsters have pleaded guilty to insider-trading charges in Hong Kong. Allen Lam, previously of investment firm CLSA, and Ryan Fong, formerly of HSZ, both admitted to market abuse charges. The scam, which resulted in the sale of shares in Media Partners International Holdings, relied on Lam informing Fong that a buyer would be purchasing a controlling stake in the media firm, a deal for which Lam was acting in the role of financial adviser at CLSA. Fong used the information to buy shares in the firm for himself and a fund at HSZ that he subsequently sold, making a profit of $435,000. The conviction is the eighth attained by Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission in the past year in a clampdown on market abuse.